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Journalism of Courage
The Bombay High Court on Friday (July 19) quashed the Maharashtra government’s recent notification which had exempted private schools — located within one kilometre radius of a government or government-aided school — from providing a 25% quota for students belonging to “weaker section and disadvantaged group in the neighbourhood”.
The quota comes under Section 12(1)(C) of The Right Of Children To Free And Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Students admitted under this quota are given fee concessions, with the state government meant to reimburse private schools for the same.
What did the rule say?
The notification, which came out on February 9, said: the “local authority shall not identify the private unaided school, for the purposes of 25% admission of disadvantaged group and weaker section under the Maharashtra Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2013, where government schools and aided schools are situated within one-kilometre radius of that school.”
This meant that private schools within a one km radius of a government or government-aided school (which receives money from the government) would not have to set aside 25% of seats for students from socio-economically backward sections. Instead, students in these neighbourhoods would have been considered for admission into said government or government-aided schools first.
The exemption also applied to private schools established in the future, as long as they were built within a one km radius of a government or government-aided school. In case there were no government or government-aided schools in the vicinity, private schools would be identified for RTE admissions, according to the notification.
With the notification, Maharashtra joined Karnataka and Kerala as states that have imposed this new regime to exempt private schools from providing RTE admissions.
Karnataka introduced the rule in December 2018, and specifically referenced the Kerala rules which were introduced in 2011. In Kerala, the fee concession for students is only made available to RTE quota students if there are no government or aided schools “within walking distance”, which is one km for students joining Class 1.
Why have states introduced such exemptions?
In Karnataka, when the rule was introduced in 2018, the state’s Law Minister Krishna Byregowda said: “The primary intention of RTE is to provide education to all classes of students… Till date, Karnataka has allowed parents to admit children to private schools despite having government schools in the same neighbourhood. This has resulted in the enrollment ratio [in government schools] dropping drastically.”
Private schools and teachers’ organisations have also highlighted that state governments have often failed to reimburse the fees for students admitted through this quota. According to Section 12(2) of the RTE Act, state governments are bound to reimburse expenses incurred by the school per child, or the fee amount, whichever is less.
In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra English School Trustees Association (MESTA) threatened to boycott RTE admissions last December citing pending payments of Rs 1,800 crore in reimbursements.
Why was the notification criticised?
Shantha Sinha, a member of the sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education which played a crucial role in drafting the RTE Act, told The Indian Express: “Section 12(1)(C) of the RTE Act that mandates 25% reservation of seats to children from disadvantaged backgrounds is in the direction of contesting the education apartheid in the country, and bringing parity and equality of opportunity for all children. Maharashtra government’s amendment is unjustified”.
Similarly, Matin Mujawar, a Pune-based RTE activist, said that “one of the intentions of this law (the quota) was to enable students from marginalised backgrounds to get education in good schools”. He said that the notification had “effectively closed” the small window through which some of the disadvantaged students got access to good education in private schools.
